


Autopsy

by LureSanta



Category: As the World Turns, House MD
Genre: Crossover, Lure Santa Exchange 2010, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-04
Updated: 2010-12-04
Packaged: 2017-10-13 12:10:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LureSanta/pseuds/LureSanta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gift for hopefulwriter27, created by hugocabret - Posted December 04</p><p>Reid quits his job at Memorial to become the head of Neurosurgery at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital where he assists Dr. House with a case. Bases loosely off the episode <i>Autopsy</i> (Season 2 Episode 2)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Autopsy

“How has your first week been?” Luke asked causally over the phone. He missed Reid terribly, but knew that it would only be a matter of time until he was able to wrap things up in Oakdale before moving to New Jersey to be with Reid.

“For one, it’s amazing to actually work with competent doctors who actually know what medicine is and how to perform actual surgeries.” Reid responded as he put his jacket on, his phone pressed tightly to his ear being held up by his shoulder. He heard Luke laugh on the other end. “Like, just yesterday, we shaved a guy’s head before operating.”

Luke rolled his eyes at Reid’s story, but he could already hear how much happier Reid was working at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He could make fun of Oakdale all he wanted; it was what brought them together.

“Sounds groundbreaking.”

“Alright, I gotta run, staff meeting in a half-hour and unlike Podunk, you can’t show up late with a box full of doughnuts and expect to get praised.”

“Go get ‘em” Luke responded back, he was so proud of Reid for getting the head of neurology, a job he beat fifteen other doctors out for.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Reid smiled as he hung up the phone. He missed Luke a lot and sometimes hearing his voice just wasn’t enough and he couldn’t wait to get his boyfriend out here as fast as he could. Luke said it would only take a couple of weeks to get an office and everything set up and sent to New Jersey where he could continue to run both Grimaldi and his foundation, but that was a couple weeks too long.

Reid was in the car when he got a text from Wilson saying that House had been briefed about Andie’s current condition and was willing to look at their case that was causing them a terrific amount of trouble.

\--

“House!” Wilson shouted out, trying to reach the doctor before he could escape. “We need you.”

“Forget it, I’m going home.” House responded, dabbing at his nose with a Kleenex. He felt like hell and the last thing he wanted to do was help Wilson and that new neurosurgeon with a case.

“Two minutes”

“The purple thingy on that file means that whoever that is has cancer and is yours. No way this is two minutes.”

“Fine, I'm lying, thirty minutes.”

“Ahhh” House starts, he can feel a sneeze coming and at that moment he would have given anything to allow his cast off to hit Wilson, but the urge to sneeze subsided as fast as it had come. Wilson was safe for another day. “The mystery of life.”

“Benadryl might help.”

“I already did 1000 milligrams”

“Steam room?”

“Oh Jimmy.” House says with a dreamy sigh in his voice. “We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

“I have a nine year old cancer patient, _alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma._ Terminal kid trumps your stuffy nose.”

“Not yet.”

“She hallucinating”

“So her brain is making her comfortable, she’s got about a week.”

“Except there is no cancer in her brain. Oliver already did a full search and scan and found nothing. Clean CT scans, blood and protein levels all negative.”

“So, she’s in remission, which means the hallucinations are unconnected.”

“Fascinating, and if you can fix what is going on in her head, you can give her another year.”

“Don’t you mean Oliver.”

“Surprised you don’t want to take the credit.”

“For this, nah, I’ll give it to the new guy.”

\--

Reid finally made it to the hospital in order to meet up with Wilson and continue discussing the Andie’s case. Although after doing a little digging around and was able to find no reason as to why she was having hallucinations. He had been excited when he heard that Wilson had wanted Dr. House to work on the case with them. House was the deciding factor in taking the job.

“You act like you are surprised he said he would help.” Reid said as he stirred some cream into his coffee.

“What do you know about House?” Wilson asked. He sounded astounded that the new doctor had a decent opinion about House.

“We went to dinner my third night I was here.” Reid said nonchalantly. He had found out very early that he and House spoke very similar languages.

Wilson just stared at Reid in disbelief, House didn’t warm up to anybody, let alone a new doctor in less than, maybe five years, yet somehow this new doctor was already going out to eat with him.

Reid laughed to himself as he took a sip. It was actually a funny story how it had happened.

 _  
Reid was staring at a file wandering the neuro-wing hall and he had a gaggle of interns behind him. He was face down in the file, ripping lines out of it aloud and waiting to hear the answers from his interns._

 _“….also, headaches, dizziness, depression, confusions, and seizures.” Reid lifted his eyes from the file and gave a cold stare at his interns (it was his new favorite look that struck fear into all of them.)_

 _“It could be lupus.” A quite, meek, intern said, her eyes were barely lifted enough to look at Reid. The other interns stared at her for being brave to speak up._

 _Reid was just about to tell her she was an idiot for assuming it was lupus considering lupus had very little to do with the brain when he heard a voice boom over his._

 _“It’s never lupus, you idiot”_

 _Reid whipped around to see a doctor with dark almost graying hair, walking with a cane and looking like he wasn’t exactly supposed to be there._

 _“You took the words right out of my mouth.” Reid said with a smirk. “Oliver.” Reid extended his hand to the man who stared at him and reluctantly shook his hand._

 _“House.”_

 _Reid turned back around and gave a quick verbal lashing to his interns before sending them off to do some busy work._

 _“I like the way you treat them, wish my team shook with fear when I looked at them.”_

 _“Brains are life and death, if you can’t hack it, you shouldn’t be hacking into them.”_

 _“So you’re the new guy that Wilson said I might like.”_

 _“Wilson, Wilson, oncology right.” Reid said as he set the chart down on the front desk and started walking towards the vending machine. He was surprised when he could hear the sound of House’s cane right behind him. The other snarky doctor was following him._

 _Reid put his money into the vending machine and got a candy bar. He turned around and looked at House who hadn’t said anything yet._

 _“Are you waiting for my life story or something like that?”_

 _“I like you.” House said, he wasn’t surprised he had said it because he had liked people before, it was just very rare, be he could tell he was going to get along with this new doctor, Reid Oliver._

 _“Glad I got your approval.” Reid said taking a bite into his snickers._

 _“You’ll need it when you have a case you just can't put your finger on it why you can’t solve it.”_

 _“I highly doubt that. I am the best.”_

 _“Right.” House said as he watched the new doctor scarf down the entire candy bar in four bites._

 _“I got a patient waiting for me, but let’s pick this up at dinner tomorrow night. You pick the place, I’m new here.” Reid said, he liked this House guy, he was a great verbal sparer, something he hadn’t been able to do much of ever since Luke Snyder fell in love with him._

 _“I do love a good first intellectual date.”  
_

“Well, Wilson, thanks for getting him to look at your case, but I had briefed him on it earlier at our dinner and I knew he was going to take it. I’m going to sit in while he briefs his team to see if I can be of any help.” Reid took another sip of his coffee before giving Wilson a small pat on the back.

\--

“Differential diagnoses. On your marks, get set… …”

“Hallucinations could be caused by…” Foreman starts to say.

“Whoa…wait for it…….and go.”

“Latent neruo-toxicity from the chemo treatments.”

“No, patients last run of chemo was two months ago, we would have seen it by now.” Reid piped in. He got a couple of looks from the group wondering who this new guy was, but House just ushered them to move forward without explaining Reid’s presence.

“Genetic component?” Chase throws out

“Nah, mother’s clean, father split before she was born, but he’s clean as well.” Foreman says looking at the file in front of him.

“Graft versus Hosts disease from the bone marrow transplant? Infection travels to the brain, she has hallucinations.” Chases asks again.

“Blood work and LP were clean.”

“Where there is infection there is benignal swelling.” Reid says, he has gotten up from the table and is now looking at the scans with House.

“CT shows no benignal involvement.” Foreman states.

“True, get a tox screen and an MRI.” House says.

“We can do that if you want…”

“Good…”

“Toxic exposure doesn’t make any sense.” Cameron says, finally speaking up.

“Well there is a third option, she could be making it all up so she doesn’t get in trouble for breaking a mirror. Unfortunately we can’t test for that, so tox screen, MRI.” House shoots Reid a glance. “And you, stay away from the patient.”

“Why me.” Cameron asks, looking around the room.

“You’ll just get all weepy.”

Reid watched as the other three left the room just leaving him alone with House.

“I have a feeling it might be the third option.” Reid said, grabbing the file that Foreman had left behind. “Why another MRI though?”

“Want to keep you involve, give you something to do.”

Reid laughed at House’s underhanded joke, he was enjoying this doctors wit.

“I’ll check to see if there are any new abnormalities. I wonder if there is a way to induce a hallucination to really see where in the brain they are coming from.”

“Sounds like a fun idea to pitch to Cuddy.”

“Sounds like that is something she won’t let me do.”

“You learn fast.”

\--

Reid threw himself down, exhausted onto his bed. He hadn’t had this much fun with medicine in along time and he was most intrigued with this case even though the MRI showed nothing new. House was convinced that the hallucinations were being caused in the amygdala but there was no evidence of that being the case.

Currently, there was nothing more he could do for the young patient as it was not the matter of the brain anymore, but Wilson was going to keep him updated and House still wanted to use him, even if it was just to put his colleagues in their place.

He hadn’t told House, who had somehow taken a disliking to the nine-year old, but Reid couldn’t help but being reminded of Annie Judd. Both young, both sick, both had just hoped for a little bit longer. Reid wished that young, Andie did have a brain tumor just so he could fix her. But her condition was still unknown and he had new patients that needed his time and effort.

Reid reached for his phone and dialed Luke’s number; he needed to hear his boyfriend voice before going to bed.

“Hey.” Luke said, he sounded like he had been running and Reid was curious as to why.

“Hey. Why do you sound like you just got done running a marathon.”

“No reason, just climbing some stairs.”

“Not too tired to talk to me are you.”

“Of course not. Tell me about your day.”

“Well there is this case that I’ve been working on for a couple of days, but I have officially had to hand it off.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“I can give you a couple details, basically young girl, cancer, she’s having hallucinations and it had nothing to do with the brain. Her CT was clean, no infections no neuro-toxins...”

Reid heard a knock on his door.

“…hold on a sec, somebody’s at the door.”

“Just tell them to go away.” Luke said. Their phone conversations had been short considering how busy Reid had been adjusting to the new job.

“It’s probably my pizza I ordered on the way home from work.”

“Some things never change.”

Reid heard the knock again.

“I really don’t want to get off my bed.”

“Go, get your food, and then call me back.” Luke said

“Love you.” Reid responded before hitting end and tossing his blackberry to the side. He rolled off his bed, exhausted from a long day. He slowly made his way to the door; he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He pulled the door open and almost dropped his wallet on the floor.

“You son-of-a-bitch.” Reid said as he grabbed his guest and pulled him into a tight embrace. “And to think I almost told you to go away.” He leaned in and gave Luke a hard kiss on the lips.

“Surprise!” Luke said as he leaned in to kiss Reid again (and again, and again).

“What are you doing here?”

“I moved so much stuff around and realized I had three days off.”

“Uhh, I love you so much.” Reid said as he let Luke go to grab his small suitcase from the hall. Luke grabbed it, dropped it off near the couch and then immediately went back to Reid who was just staring at him in disbelief.

Reid was just about to pull Luke into another kiss when he heard another knock. He quickly opened the door, paid for the pizza and then set the pizza down on the counter. Luke was just walking around the small apartment taking in the surroundings.

“Nice place.”

“Commere.” Reid said as he walked over towards Luke. He just couldn’t believe that Luke was here. Although they had only been away for about a week, it had felt like an eternity. Luke allowed himself to sink into Reid’s embrace. “I cannot believe you are here.”

“I’m tired from my flight. I think we should go to the bedroom.” Luke responded with dreamy eyes

“I think that is an excellent idea, Mr. Snyder.”

\--

Luke was lying with his head on Reid’s chest and he was trying to catch his breath. He must agree that distance did make the heart grow fonder, along with a couple other organs, and he was just so happy to be there with Reid. He couldn’t wait to move out here so they could start their life together.

“I want to hear about everything.” Luke said as he held onto Reid a bit tighter. Reid was absentmindedly tangling his fingers through his hair and he loved when Reid did that.

“I love my job.”

“Tell me why you love it.”

“To begin with, the cases I get are incredible here. They are groundbreaking. Some of the best equipment. I work with some of the best surgeons and doctors in the whole world. And my interns are actually capable of reading and writing.”

“I thought you told me they were all idiots.”

“Well they are.”

“Tell me more about that case, the one that reminded you of Annie.”

“She’s just so young and optimistic, you would love her.”

“Would it be possible to meet her?”

“She’s not my patient but I think you could probably stop by and say hi.”

“I’d like that.” Luke said, he was running his fingers along Reid’s chest and abdomen. He couldn’t keep his hands off him.

“Her hallucinations are not being caused by the brain, well I mean they are, but the actual cause is something outside the brain so there is nothing I can do.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Luke.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to apologize.”

Reid just shook his head and laughed at Luke’s terrible attempt to take away his apology.

“Have you made any friends yet?”

“Friends?”

“I’m using the term very loosely” Luke said with a chuckle.

“Maybe one.”

“That’s a lot for you. What’s their name?”

“House.”

“House?”

“Yeah, Dr. House.”

“What’s he like.”

“Rude, angry, mean, aggressive, fucking brilliant”

“Sounds like somebody I know.”

“He has taken over the case for the hallucinations and Wilson still is working on her cancer.”

“Should I be nervous?”

“About what?”

“That you’ll leave me for him?”

“No. I like my boyfriends young, dumb, and blonde.”

“Hey.” Luke said but Reid just silenced him with a kiss.

“I gotta go to work early tomorrow; you can come with me if you want.”

“I do.”

“Good, I want to show you off.”

\--

Reid told Luke he had a meeting but that he was free to wander around as long as he didn’t get in the way. He gave Luke a kiss, getting eyes from all the interns who were shocked at what they were witnessing. Reid gave Luke a light slap on the cheek before watching the young, hot, blonde walk away from him in the direction of the café to get some breakfast.

“What are you all staring at?”

“Nothing, nothing.” The group responded, shuffling their feet on the ground.

“Go do your rounds, I have a meeting.”

Reid made his way to House’s office where they had already begun discussing the latest test results.

House tossed Reid a bagel and he started to eat it as they hashed out what the problem could be. House wanted Reid to be there in case any new brain issues arose.

Reid hadn’t been paying too much attention as they were discussing mostly heart and lung issues when something Foreman said perked his attention.

“…guys I know we sort of ruled out infection but if we forget the labs for a minute, there is one we didn’t test for because of her age. _Neuro-syphilis.”_

“No way.” Chase said, his eyes were wide at what Foreman had said.

Reid was getting curious as to where Foreman was taking this discussion.

“If the infection dipped into her cerebral cortex her peripheral functions could be compromised.”

“He’s right.” Reid said, before taking a bite of his bagel.

“No, she hasn’t had sex. She’s nine.” Chase said again, unable to agree with what Foreman was saying.

“Maybe it wasn’t her idea. She’s been around a lot of adults. All the hospital visits, camp counselors.”

“You think she’s been molested?” Cameron said looking at Foreman.

“I would know if any of that was going on.” Chase said, getting out of his seat, clearly upset with what Foreman was saying.

“Yeah, because all girls who were molested want to talk about it.” House said, finally speaking up. “Break out the rape kit.”

“She hasn’t had sex!” Chase said adamantly.

“How are you so sure?” House questioned.

“She told me she never kissed a boy.”

“Do you read her diary too?”

Reid held in a laugh.

“She asked me to kiss her.”

“I rest my case.”

\--

Reid left the meeting, as the results of the SA kit would not be done for a couple of hours, to go find Luke who was still in the cafeteria.

“Hungry?” Luke asked as Reid sat down next to him.

“Always, but I just ate two bagels so I’m pretty set.”

“How did you meeting go?”

“It was informative, just waiting for some new test results which might involve me.”

“That’s great.”

“Would you like to meet the girl?”

“Yeah.”

Luke and Reid left the cafeteria and Reid started showing Luke around. He knew that Wilson was with Andie right now and would need probably another half an hour before he could take Luke to see her. Reid liked showing off the new hospital. It was shiny and new and talking about all the innovative and interesting things they were doing there got him excited.

“This hospital is amazing Reid, I’m so happy you took the job.” Luke said as he stopped so Reid could give him a small kiss. Although Reid was a very private person, he had never had a problem with PDA.

“Andie is a couple rooms down from here.”

“Do I need to know anything before we go in there?”

“Not really. Like I said you’ll love her. She kind of reminds me of you.”

Reid watched as Wilson left her room and walked towards them.

“Oliver.”

“Wilson.” Reid said in acknowledgement.

“Hi, I’m Luke, Luke Snyder.”

“Patient?” Wilson asked

“Boyfriend.” Reid said with a smile

“It’s nice to meet you.” Wilson said holding his hand out to Luke.

“Likewise.” Luke said as he firmly shook the doctor’s hand.

“Luke runs a foundation and I thought he would like to meet Andie to see if they could do anything for her.”

“She’s a special girl. I’m sure you’ll fall in love with her. Almost everybody does.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Well, she’s going to be getting some medicine soon so I would see her now before she goes to sleep.”

“Great.” Reid said

“Bye.” Luke said

They watched as Wilson walked away.

“Ready?” Reid asked as they walked towards Andie’s door.

“Yeah.”

Reid pushed Andie’s door open and Luke watched as her smile grew wide.

“Dr. Oliver!” Andie said excitedly. “I thought you weren’t my doctor anymore.”

“I’m not, I just wanted you to meet somebody that I think you’ll really like, his name is Luke.”

“Hi Luke.”

“Hi Andie.”

Reid was just about to say something when his beeper went off, he looked down at it and realized that it was an emergency.

“I gotta go, but Andie, if you don’t mind keeping Luke company for me would you?”

“No way.” Andie said, she was staring at Luke and Reid could already tell that Andie had a crush on his boyfriend.

“Luke you’ll be good right.”

“Yep.”

Reid left the room in a hurry as he needed to get to his wing as two trauma victims were arriving shortly as they were being airlifted from an accident.

\--

“Have you ever been in the hospital before Luke?”

“Yes, when I was 16 I had a kidney transplant.”

“What happened?”

“I wasn’t taking good care of myself.”

“Were you going to die?”

“They thought I might?”

“Did you ever believe it?”

“That I was going to die?”

“Yeah.”

“To be honest Andie, there were times when I didn’t know.”

“You look a lot like Dr. Chase.”

“Do I now.” Luke internally laughed to himself as Reid failed to mention that. He was also surprised at how fast Andie had changed the subject.

“I asked him to kiss me.”

“Did he?”

“No, he said it would be inappropriate because he’s my doctor. I just want to know what it feels like. I’ve never been kissed before. Had you ever been kissed Luke?”

“I have.”

“What’s it like?”

“When it’s with the right person it can feel like the world has stopped turning for just a moment to allow you to savor it as long as possible.” Luke smile. He had felt that way the first time he kissed Reid.

“What about when you were in the hospital. Had you been kissed then?”

“I…actually…come to think of it, no.”

“Did you ask anybody?”

“No.”

“Will you kiss me? I…I just want to know how it feels when the world stops moving.”

“Andie, I…I just met you. I’m so much older than you are. I don’t think it would be right.”

“I won’t tell anybody. I just don’t want to die without being kissed by a boy.”

Luke was quiet for a moment. A lot of old memories were flooding back to him and he remembered lying in a bed thinking that he might never experience the joy and love of being kissed by somebody you care about.

“Close your eyes.” Luke finally said

Andie didn’t say a word, she just shut her eyes. Luke got up out of his chair and leaned forward planting a small kiss on her lips. He was already sitting back down before she opened her eyes again. She didn’t say anything. She just smiled.

Luke spent the next two hours just talking with Andie and he couldn’t believe how strong and brave she was. She knew she was dying yet she wasn’t going to give up, she didn’t want to see her mom suffer. Luke understood how Reid had liked this little girl because he could see a lot of himself in her.

Wilson came back into the room and Luke left, saying what he knew would be his final goodbyes to her.

As he walked down the hall toward Reid’s office he knew that he had given her something special. He knew that he probably shouldn’t have done it, but he had thought back to when he was sick and he probably would have been just like Andie. If Reid had been his doctor, he probably would have asked him to kiss him, just so he could die with one less regret.

\--

Reid appeared in his office six hours later and Luke was busy working on some emails for his foundation, trying to set something up as quickly as he could for Andie and her mother.

“Hey.” Reid said as he entered the office looking exhausted.

“Hey.” Luke said getting up from Reid’s desk and giving him a kiss. Luke wasn’t sure how much he liked these offices with windows on all the sides. “How was the surgery?”

“Quick in and out, both survived.”

“You’re amazing.”

“I know.”

“So what have you been doing all day?”

“Well Andie is amazing, thanks for letting me meet her.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So I’ve been spending the whole day talking to the foundation trying to set something up.”

“Of course you have.”

“I’ve taken a liking to her.”

“What kind of liking?”

“I gave her a kiss.”

“You’re such a fool for falling for that line.”

“What do you mean?”

“She pulled that line on Chase yesterday…”

“She told me he didn’t kiss her.”

“Well he did.”

Luke just laughed

“She clearly has a type.” Reid said running his fingers through Luke’s hair.

“Speaking of, why haven’t you told me about this Dr. Chase?”

“He’s straight Luke, don’t worry.”

“I’m not.”

“Right.”

“Are you able to go home now?”

“Yeah.”

\--

Reid was rushed back to the hospital early the next morning because House was operating on Andie. Luke stayed in bed as it was four in the morning and Reid didn’t want to miss the surgery, especially since House was going to technically kill her and then bring her back to life in order to remove a clot that was causing the hallucinations.

Reid didn’t come home until almost 10:00 pm.

“Is she ok?” Luke asked

“She survived the surgery and she shouldn’t have anymore hallucinations.”

“That’s good.”

“But that didn’t cure the cancer. She probably has less than a year.”

“I’m sorry Reid.”

“Sometimes the only thing we can give them is time.”

“Right.”

“Or a kiss in your case.”

“Reid.” Luke said he gave him a hug and a light kiss. He hated that he had to leave in the morning to go back to Oakdale.

“Bed.”

“Yes please.”

“What time is your flight tomorrow?”

“Noon.”

“I wish you could stay longer.”

“Me too.”

They both slowly undressed and got into bed. Luke felt Reid pull him close to his body and it was only a matter of minutes before Reid was asleep. Luke stayed awake a bit longer thinking about Andie. He thought about how brave she was for her mother and he wondered if he was anything like her when he was sick. He thought about how thankful he was that he had survived because his life with Reid was amazing. He knew that Reid would give him a hard time for kissing Andie but he didn’t regret it because she would be missing out on so much.

\--

Reid took Luke to the airport before going into work. Luke was knew that Reid was trying to get him to miss his flight by kissing him so many times but Luke knew he needed to go home. He would be out here soon and he reminded Reid that if he didn’t let him go back to Oakdale it would only take him longer to get everything sorted.

Reid got to this hospital just after Luke’s flight took off and he gathered his interns for some rounds. He needed to restore order since it had spread pretty fast that Reid was quite the sap for his young boyfriend. This only caused him to berate them even more, causing two of them to cry. Reid felt satisfied.

Reid was walking toward the vending machine when he heard the familiar noise of House’s cane clacking behind him. Reid grabbed his snickers and turned around to face the brilliant, snarky, doctor.

“I heard your boyfriend fell for the same trick as Chase.”

“Those dumb blondes.” Reid said taking a bite into his snickers. “They’ll kiss anybody who asks them.”

House gave a quick laugh as he popped a pain pill into his mouth, swallowing it dry.

“So I’ve been hearing from some of the staff that you are quite the sap, and to think I thought you were cool, like me.”

Just as House finished his sentence, he saw an intern spot Reid, breaking out into another fit of tears and running away.

“Is that your doing?” House questioned as Reid turned around to see which of the two was sobbing near the receptionist table.

“It’s not my fault she didn’t know the difference between _mad cow_ and _variant creutzfeldt-jakob disease_.”

“Nice. Keep up the good work Oliver.”


End file.
